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Believe it or not, despite it’s current badass persona, the leather jacket hasn’t always been a symbol of toughness and unfettered sexuality lingering on the cusp of the underbelly of popular culture. In its new exhibit, “Worn To Be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket”, the EMP traces this classic American icon through its roots as a utilitarian garment in the 1920’s, whose design elements were deliberately chosen for motorcycle riding, to its status as Fly Boy hero garb during WWII, through the squeaky clean fifties and early sixties, the outlaw late sixties, punk seventies and up through the haute couture of today.

 

 

You’ll do yourself a favor by checking this exhibit out, especially if you’re into punk leather riddled with studs and skulls, notorious jackets of stars like Elvis and Joan Jett and awesomely sculpted pieces by Versace, Jeremy Scott and Jean Paul Gaultier, who was interviewed for the exhibit and personally styled the looks in his set, which his innovative incarnations on this classic form. EMP is the first museum ever to display a comprehensive look at the historical path of the leather jacket through our collective popular consciousness. Through January 20, 2013. (Erin Bosetti contributed to this post).